A Malaysian High Court has sentenced a 27-year-old Nigerian who was caught at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) with about 389.8gm of methamphetamine in his stomach to 18 years imprisonment.

The accused, Francis Ikenna Nwannochie was also ordered to be given 10 strokes of the cane by the presiding judge, Justice Datuk Abdul Alim Abdullah after he pleaded guilty to drug possession.

During the court hearing, Justice Abdullah told the accused that he was lucky to get away with an alternative charge of drug possession instead of the initial drug trafficking charge that carried the death sentence upon conviction.

It was gathered that Nwannochie was detained on Feb 29, 2012 when Custom authorities noticed him walking in a suspicious manner.

However, on March 1, 2012, he was taken to a hospital in Malaysia where an X-ray showed the presence of a foreign lump inside his stomach. The lump was later found to consist of 54 capsules of methamphetamine.